Team Profile: Netherlands

Being part of the five ever teams of the World Cup, Holland qualified for the biggest extravaganza by claiming third place in the 2009 Euro Hockey Nations Tournament. With the fifth-time World Cup appearance of Teun de Nooijer, coach Michel van den Heuvel has his sights on the Gold and nothing else. Teun’s FIH Player of the Year award also heartens his squad that boasts of some of the most dogged wielders of the stick.
Team’s new relatively entrants, Billy Bakker, Valentin Verga, Bob de Voogd, Klaas Vermeulen, Constantijn Jonker and Quirijn Caspers have earned a reputation for themselves in a little time-span and with the determination of getting their hands on the gold for a fourth time, the outfit would be a force to reckon with.
Holland have won the World Cup on three occasions (Amstelveen-1973, Lahore-1990 and Utrecht-1998), a feat that is surpassed only by Pakistan and an equalizer would definitely be playing on the minds and hearts of the Dutch team. In Mönchengladbach, in 2006, Netherlands slumped to a disappointing seventh place finish, following four successive podium finishes. In their only previous World Cup in India (1982), Holland finished in fourth place.